Chelsea linked again with defenders Milan Škriniar, Kalidou Koulibaly — reports

Chelsea’s primary purpose this summer is supposedly to rebuild the defense (and we probably shouldn’t forget about our again midfield), and while things have gotten pretty exciting lately in terms of potential signings in attack, we should not forget about said plans either.

Fortunately, we have no shortage of rumors and links at that end of the pitch either, with Matthijs De Ligt, Jules Koundé, and Nathan Aké leading the way, plus re-emerging links to both the fantastic Milan Škriniar and old rumor mill friend Kalidou Koulibaly.

Škriniar was mentioned recently as a potential part of the Romelu Lukaku loan, but that was always going be just a flight of fancy, especially with PSG looking to spend big on the 27-year-old defender. But that deal seems to have stalled, so a bit of motivation has been inserted in the form of Chelsea getting “serious” as well, as per Gazzetta dello Sport (via Sempre Inter). This has now made its way into the Mail as well, evolving into Chelsea “turning to” Škriniar instead of the younger and (probably) more expensive De Ligt — though Škriniar will probably a command a fee in the region of €70m as well, if not more.

Slightly less intriguing is the idea, as per Sky Italia (via Football Italia) of Chelsea going after Kalidou Koulibaly, who would certainly cost less than either of those two, but is 31 now and we probably shouldn’t expect every veteran defender to be a next Thiago Silva. And it’s not like K2 would be free — Napoli are supposedly asking €40m for the man with just one year left on his contract, and that’s before you consider the rather significant tax of having to deal with Napoli owner Aurelio Di Laurentiis in the process.

We might have £200m burning a hole in the new owners’ pockets and an evident desire to make a marquee splash signing or two, but hopefully we don’t get too carried away in signing players just for the sake of signing them.